File Condition Properties
The File Condition Properties window contains the settings for a File Condition.
A File Condition will not cause a job to start executing: it will only cause a job to pause execution to wait for files. To start a job based on files, use a File Trigger instead.
Property Pages
Property pages common to all Conditions
General
Name for this condition (optional)
Optionally, enter a name for this condition.
Enabled
Check this box to enable the condition, or uncheck to disable it. A disabled condition will be ignored by adTempus.
Description/Notes
Optionally, enter an extended description or notes about this condition.
Condition Wait
The options on this page determine how adTempus waits for this condition.
Condition Wait
This option determines whether adTempus will wait for the condition to be met:
- Do not wait for condition to be met. If the condition is not satisfied the first time adTempus checks it for a given instance, adTempus treats the condition as "Failed."
- Wait until the condition is met. If the condition is not satisfied, adTempus will wait until it is satisfied. The job or step will show a status of "Waiting for Condition."
- Wait up to __ minutes for the condition to be met. adTempus will wait up to the specified time limit for the condition to be satisfied. If the condition is satisfied within that time limit, job execution will continue immediately (as depending on other conditions). If the condition is not satisfied at the end of the time limit, adTempus treats the condition as "Timed Out."
Condition Polling
This option determines how often this condition should be evaluated. In most cases you will use the default polling interval (about 30 seconds). You may wish to use a longer polling interval to reduce the load on adTempus in cases where checking a condition is resource-intensive (such as a Script Condition that does a large amount of processing).
When you set a polling interval for one or more conditions on a job or step, adTempus applies the longest polling interval to all conditions.
The server-wide default interval can be set through the Advanced Server Options window.
Once satisfied, do not re-evaluate when evaluating other conditions for this instance
This option determines how this condition behaves once it is met if the job or step also has other conditions that have not been met. adTempus will keep checking each condition until it is met or times out.
If this option is checked, adTempus will not check the condition again once it has been met. If the option is not checked, adTempus will keep checking the condition each time it checks the other conditions.
Example
Suppose your job has two conditions:
- File c:\input\*.zip must exist.
- Job "Data Process" must not be running.
Both are configured to wait up to 10 minutes for the condition to be met, and the job is configured to wait until all conditions are met.
The first time it checks conditions, adTempus finds file c:\input\file1.zip, so the condition 1 is now met. Job "Data Process" is running, so condition 2 is not met. adTempus therefore must wait for condition 2 to be met, so 30 seconds later it goes to check the conditions again. During those 30 seconds, job "Data Process" has finished running (so condition 2 has now been met), but the file c:\input\file1.zip has been deleted.
If condition 1 has the Once satisfied... option checked, adTempus will not re-evaluate the condition, so it considers the condition to be satisfied even though the file no longer exists. The job is therefore triggered.
If condition 1 does not have the Once satisfied... option checked, adTempus will re-evaluate the condition and find that the file no longer exists. Condition 1 therefore is no longer satisfied, so adTempus will continue waiting until it is satisfied again, or until the wait time elapses.
File Condition
File Specification
Specify the files that the job is dependent on. You must specify the path and name, but you may use wildcards. For example:
- "c:\proddata\data1.log" looks for a specific file
- "c:\proddata\*.log" looks for any file with a ".log" extension in the "c:\proddata\" directory.
The File Specification may contain Job Variables, which will be expanded to resolve the file name.
Criterion
Specify what the state of the file must be to satisfy the condition:
- File must exist. The file you specify must exist. If your File Specification includes wildcards, the condition is satisfied as soon as one file that matches the pattern is found.
- File must not exist. The file you specify must not exist. If your File Specification includes wildcards, the condition is satisfied only if no files that match the pattern are found.
Include subdirectories
If the File Specification contains wildcards and the Include subdirectories option is checked, adTempus will check subdirectories of the directory named in the File Specification. For example if your File Specification is c:\proddata\*.log, adTempus will look for a file with the extension ".log" in the "c:\proddata\" directory and all of its subdirectories.
Only consider files modified since the last execution of the job
If this option is checked, adTempus will only look at files modified (or created) since the last time this job was executed.
Wait for exclusive access to the file
If this option is checked the condition is not satisfied until adTempus can get exclusive access to the file (that is, the file is not in use by any other processes).
For example, your job is dependent on a data file transferred to the server using FTP. The transfer process can take several minutes to complete. The file will appear in the directory as soon as the transfer begins, which would cause the condition to be satisfied. However, you don't want the job to run until the transfer is complete. If you check the Wait for exclusive access to the file option, adTempus will wait (as long as you have also checked the Wait up to __ seconds for the condition to be met option) for exclusive access to the file. As long as the file is still being written to, adTempus will not be able to gain exclusive access and so will keep waiting. Once the transfer is complete, adTempus will be able to gain exclusive access and will allow the job to continue.
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